company.--The Parson's Wedding.

When Clarence returned home, after the conversation recorded in our
last chapter, he found a note from Talbot, inviting him to meet some
friends of the latter at supper that evening. It was the first time
Clarence had been asked, and he looked forward with some curiosity and
impatience to the hour appointed in the note.

It is impossible to convey any idea of the jealous rancour felt by Mr.
and Mrs. Copperas on hearing of this distinction,--a distinction which
"the perfect courtier" had never once bestowed upon themselves.

Mrs. Copperas tossed her head, too indignant for words; and the stock-
jobber, in the bitterness of his soul, affirmed, with a meaning air,
"that he dared say, after all, that the old gentleman was not so rich
as he gave out."

On entering Talbot's drawing-room, Clarence found about seven or eight
people assembled; their names, in proclaiming the nature of the party,
indicated that the aim of the host was to combine aristocracy and
talent. The literary acquirements and worldly tact of Talbot, joined
to the adventitious circumstances of birth and fortune, enabled him to
effect this object, so desirable in polished society, far better than
we generally find it effected now. The conversation of these guests
was light and various. The last bon mot of Chesterfield, the last
sarcasm of Horace Walpole, Goldsmith's "Traveller," Shenstone's
"Pastorals," and the attempt of Mrs. Montagu to bring Shakspeare into
fashion,--in all these subjects the graceful wit and exquisite taste
of Talbot shone pre-eminent; and he had almost succeeded in convincing
a profound critic that Gray was a poet more likely to live than Mason,